6m skip work in London snowfall

BRITAIN’s capital cleared the soggy remnants of a paralysing snowstorm as businesses counted the multi billion-pound cost.

An estimated six million people skipped work on Monday when the largest snowstorm to hit London in 18 years stopped bus and subway services, grounded airliners and hobbled businesses.The Federation of Small Businesses said the cost to Britain’s economy through lost productivity could be as high as £3 billion (3.3bn).

Transportation officials, business leaders and local authorities accused one another of failing to prepare for the long-predicted storm that crippled Britain’s transport network by dropping more than four inches of snow in London overnight on Sunday, and another four inches on Monday.